On the whole they much enjoyed themselves, and had a good appetite
at dinner time.
The meal was laid for them in a small private room, which smelt
principally of stale tobacco and stale chimney soot. The
water-bottle on the table was encrusted with a white enamel
advertisement of somebody's whisky, and had another such
recommendation legible on its base. The tray used by the girl in
attendance was enamelled with the name of somebody's brandy. On the
walls hung three brightly-coloured calendars, each an advertisement:
one of sewing machines, one of a popular insurance office, one of a
local grocery business. The other mural adornments were old coloured
pictures of racehorses and faded photographs of dogs. A clock on the
mantelpiece (not going) showed across its face the name of a firm
that dealt in aerated waters.
Coarse and plentiful were the viands, and Polly did justice to them.
She had excellent teeth, a very uncommon thing in girls of her kind;
but Polly's parents were of country origin. With these weapons she
feared not even the pastry set before her, which it was just
possible to break with an ordinary fork.
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